Rivalries abound in the tech world. Microsoft vs. Apple is a good example. With the departure of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple’s Board of Directors, is Google set to become Apple’s newest rival? Is it a rivalry of open vs. closed? BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows:
By most measures—revenue growth, stock appreciation, magazine cover stories—Apple and Google are the two most successful and influential companies of the past decade. Yet their visions for how the computer industry will shape up in the next one could hardly diverge more.
Apple is a software company that builds hardware. Google is an advertising company which gives away access to technology. Both have a singular rival in Microsoft. Whatever happened to the adage, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Are all three companies now enemies?
Google is the standard-bearer for a wide-open world of Web standards in which programmers should be able to run nearly any software on almost any computing device… Apple’s view is sharply different. The company keeps its ecosystem of software developers carefully manicured and maintains tight control over what software can be sold for its iPhone.
With Schmidt gone from Apple’s Board of Directors, Arthur Levinson remains the only member on both Apple’s board and Google’s board. The question is,“ is Levinson a mole for Apple vs. Google, or a mole for Google vs. Apple?” When Levinson quits as a director on one board, which will it be? Google or Apple?